Title IX and the Crisis of Boyhood

When I was teaching public speaking last summer, one of my students was interested in focusing on Title IX in her policy speech. In the policy speech assignment, students are expected to propose a policy plan that addresses an issue that they argue is in urgent need of addressing. I get plenty of repetitive topic proposals - the 'obesity epidemic,' banning smoking in public, alternative energy sources, etc. - but gender-related issues are not often on the radar (unless, of course, we count the ol' abortion speech). Title IX especially is one of those topics that doesn't even register with students born around 1990. I was quite surprised, then, when a female student wanted to speak to this relic of gendered legal battles, and what's more, she was sincerely invested in its repeal.

It turned out that this student's interest in Title IX sprung from a funding issue with her brother's high school sports team (I believe it was track), and she argued that her brother's championship team deserved the monies that allegedly went instead to a women's sports team in their high school. The boys, she insisted, were victims of reverse discrimination.

A female student opposes Title IX. I certainly do not want to implicate this student (or others - I once had an African American student who fervently opposed affirmative action policies) as ignorant or apathetic, nor would I want to squash the possibilities for radical activism. However, I must wonder aloud when the multiple crises of boyhood and masculinity will begin to tone down a bit? I just cannot buy into these concerns, as someone who finds the death grip on traditional gender roles materially comprehensible, but realistically in need of lightening up.

I'll end with this: what did my student actually find in her research on Title IX? It's difficult to say, as most of the argument revolved around this case study of her brother's experience. What should we know about this law that has serious implications for the way girls get to participate in all educational programs (that's right - it's not just about sports!)? This info page from the Women's Sports Foundation is a good place to start.

Photo from the blog friedbrains.com (not an endorsement of the blogger's politics, but the perspective on this issue is worth checking out)

Barbie Lives...On the Runway

Those Bratz really must be giving Barbie a run for her money. Although the global economic climate led numerous designers and fashion houses to scale down their New York Fashion Week events, Mattel saw fit to engineer "a lavish runway show that attracted more than 1,400 to the largest fashion tent in Bryant Park on Saturday" ("Barbie Wouldn't Wear That!" So, maybe Barbie's iconic status affords the doll and its maker a bit more salience in contemporary "girls'" toy markets than the recent Bratz boom might lead us to think? Whether it's the novelty of a real-life Barbie fashion show or its glamorous association with the Bryant Park runway that made the event successful, what's clear is the exploitation of the relationships between fashion, spectacle, girl culture, and capital.

Perhaps the images I'm including here communicate more than yet another critical analysis of 'Barbie as model for gendered expectations' ever could. I will, however, say this: what I think is visually most telling is that only the white model is clearly 'fashioned' in the classic, iconic Barbie image.

Reference: Kensler, Chris. "Barbie Wouldn't Wear That!" FOXNews.com (February 16. 2009). http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,493664,00.html (accessed February 18, 2009).

Images from FOXNews

Girls Publishing Online(?)

Whatever happened to the zine? More specifically, is the era of the grrrlzine over? These might be the inquiries of a co/counter-cultural outsider, but I do pose them in earnest. Schilt and Zobl argue that "the ethos of the Riot Grrrl movement continues today through the production of grrrl zines" (171). The grrl zine network is still accessible, but how recently has it been "up and running?" The emphasis on zines in girl and grrrl culture may have been easy to spot in the early 2000s, but the proliferation of new media formats online (blogging, social networking) have perhaps contributed to even more localized activist communities where girls can publish posts, status, and comments, rather than articles, interviews, and editorials. The most visible girls' websites that might be categorized as "zines" are not necessarily authored by girls - gurl.com, for example, is "a property of" Alloy Media + Marketing - so it's important to consider these outlets critically and perhaps trouble the zine concept (or, dare I say, the co-option of the zine concept). I don't mean to suggest that either methodology (zine V. blog) is more rhetorically and/or materially effective - I think there may be a nostalgic tone to my search for the long-lost zine - but I do think there is a need to re-survey the world of online publishing by and for girls and consider the implications of those modes for girl culture broadly.

Reference: Schilt, Kristen, and Elke Zobl. "Connecting the Dots: Riot Grrrls, Ladyfests, and the International Grrrl Zine Network." In Next Wave Cultures: Feminism, Subcultures, Activism, edited by Anita Harris, 171-192. NY: Routledge, 2008.

Image from grrrlzines.net

Girls Get Schooled

"Girls and education" was a recent seminar topic, and it got me thinking about our roles as feminist activists and academics who value access to education on a global scale. What might it mean to preach the secular education gospel and champion the right for girls to learn in classroom settings?

I didn't have to look much further than the UN for some insight as to the current status of global education implementation, especially as it relates to girls. The United Nations Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI) is a program that touts the following in its mission statement: "UNGEI partners mobilize resources for targeted project interventions, country programmes and large-scale systematic interventions designed to affect the education system as a whole." The rhetoric of intervention is simultaneously telling of the urgency with which the UN wants to attend to the educational needs of girls worldwide and reminiscent of Western imperialist tendencies. The UNGEI is not necessarily a feminist project, yet it names gender as a central tenet that shapes and drives its objectives. If we were to agree on meanings for "education" and "feminism(s)," how might we conceptualize and implement a more thoroughgoing feminist approach to global education for girls? Especially considering that the UNGEI works in conjunction with the UN's Millennium Development Goals, what qualifies as "development," who benefits from that development, and how are girls affected in particular?

Beyond the Cookies (But Not Necessarily the Cookie Sales)

While reflecting on my own girlhood and consuming a little bit of reality TV, I began thinking about a little organization known as the Girl Scouts of America. Scouting and diversity aren't necessarily concepts that go hand in hand in my memory of Girl Scouts, but multimedia marketing efforts by the GSA appear to be working hard to mend that disconnect. A recent news release on the GSA website included the following statement:

"Diversity has been a Girl Scouts core value since the organization's inception in 1912," said Laurel Richie, GSUSA SVP/Chief Marketing Officer. "Our founder, Juliette Low, strove to include girls from a variety of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds and her legacy lives on today. Girl Scouts of the USA is committed to ensuring that its membership reflects the world we live in, and is dedicated to reaching out to African-American, Asian and Latina girls and volunteers. "

One of the means by which the Girl Scouts are attempting to "reach out" is through spokeswomen Vanessa and Angela Simmons (daughters of Run DMC's Rev Run & nieces to Russell Simmons). The interesting bent on Vanessa and Angela inhabiting the Girl Scouts' 'role model' role is that they are positioned as savvy businesswomen and successful entrepreneurs in conjunction with the organization's "Financial Literacy" program. There's a beneficial tie-in for the Girls Scouts, who gain exposure via Vanessa and Angela's MTV reality show Daddy's Girls, and for the Simmons' shoe and apparel line Pastry. I wonder about the benefits/complexities/implications that might arise out of the relationships among scouting, capitalism, and the 'diversification' of girl culture.

Image from nataliedee.com

Iconic Girlhood - Beanie Babies Version

Unsurprisingly, we're already on to the next installment of the narrative that is the Obama girls' first girlhood. The Associated Press reported that the folks who bring you Beanie Babies (apparently they're still making/selling them - is a mid-nineties revival in the air?), Ty Inc., have put out a couple of dolls named "Marvelous Malia" and "Sweet Sasha." The company denies that the dolls are in any way made in the first daughters' likenesses, but I wonder how many Beanie Babies of color have come before? Read the story here.

Image from Huffington Post.

'Diary of a Pakistani Schoolgirl'

Map from BBC News.

While I was clicking here and there on BBC News online yesterday, I happened upon the headline, "Diary of a Pakistani Schoolgirl." The first set of diary entries are prefaced with the following:

"Private schools in Pakistan's troubled north-western Swat district have been ordered to close in a Taleban edict banning girls' education. Militants seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law have destroyed about 150 schools in the past year. Five more were blown up despite a government pledge to safeguard education, it was reported on Monday. Here a seventh grade schoolgirl from Swat chronicles how the ban has affected her and her classmates. The diary first appeared on BBC Urdu online."

The girl reports in a 15 January entry that she is publishing her writing under the pen name 'Gul Makai.' The diary format is a traditionally feminized form of writing and demonstrates explicitly the overlap of private/public, personal/political.